Client: Edward River Council State: NSW The objective of the Financial Sustainability Review was to facilitate sustainable long-term planning and avert potential issues emerging in the future. The project's highlight was its ability to provide the council with a thorough understanding of past performance and a forecast of the Council’s capacity to maintain fiscal capital (access to cash) and maintain infrastructure (assets). The project included an assessment of the asset management maturity and testing the estimated infrastructure backlog and asset maintenance targets. AEC developed strategies and recommendations to the Council to address areas that required improvement to ensure financial sustainability in the long term. The project involved a thorough analysis of the Council's cost of services, capital works planning, asset management approach, risks, and opportunities. This analysis offered a clear and comprehensive picture of the Council's financial position, and identified areas where improvements could be made. The project considered Council's long-term strategic plans and how they align with their financial projections, ensuring integration of financial planning with strategic planning, enabling Council to achieve the Community Strategic Plan and other adopted strategies and plans. The success of the project was highlighted by the appreciation and compliments provided by the Councillors and the Executive Team, and we look forward to monitoring the realisation of the project through implementation of our recommendations. Source: https://www.edwardriver.nsw.gov.au/Services

Client: Department of Education Queensland State: QLD AEC has just been awarded the contract to undertake the Integrated Communication Study on behalf of the QLD Department of Education. The Queensland Department of Education (the Department) has previously undertaken research where the overall objective was to improve employee retention, which closely correlates with employee satisfaction. This research revealed discontent with several areas of internal communications including systems, governance, and processes. The overarching purpose of this Study is to identify common pain points experienced by staff in their internal communications experience. The study will engage with Principals and deputy principals, heads of curriculum, heads of department, and all other leadership roles, school /classroom teachers, school business managers, all school-based non-teaching staff, regional directors and assistant regional directors, and regional and corporate office staff via online survey. The findings from this study will identify which stage(s) of the internal communications process require the most improvement and/or would be the most impactful areas to improve at the Department. Source: Shutterstock

Client: Health and Wellbeing Queensland State: QLD Health and Wellbeing Queensland (HWQld) is working to increase the accessibility, affordability, desirability and convenience of healthier food and drinks options for Queenslanders in out-of-home (OOH) food environments. To bridge the gap in light of minimal information on the demand for healthier food and drinks options in OOH environments HWQld commissioned a research study to engage with Queensland adults to gain in-depth insights into the values, attitudes, knowledge, behaviours and expectations of food and drink provision in OOH environments. The study engaged with two target audiences including Queensland adults who have child(ren) between the ages of 5 and 12 (Group 1) and those who do not have child(ren) within this age group (Group 2) via online survey methodology (via panel partners). The overarching objective of the study was to understand and demonstrate demand for healthier food and drink options in OOH environments to enable HWQld to identify opportunities and deliver programs in a way that is relevant and develop new programs that fill any gaps and ultimately inform the future direction of key HWQld programs that form part of key marketing messages. Source: Shutterstock

Client: Rockhampton Regional Council State: QLD AEC were engaged by Advance Rockhampton through a Sunwater grant to develop a suite of commodity outlook reports that provided an in-depth analysis of the global market, supply chain capacity/gaps and assess potential target crops in terms of profitability and sustainability to support new and existing agribusiness expansion/development opportunities for their production within Rookwood Weir’s catchment area and the available water to potential water licence holders. AEC prepared detailed market outlooks using historical public and proprietary domestic and international crop data, analysis of, and direct engagement with key stakeholders including relevant industry associations in order to develop detailed farm level 3-way financial models and crop forecasts that incorporated supply growth and competitive positioning data from offshore competitors. In the report, AEC considered various components including an overview of the global market, an overview of the Australia industry, detailed supply chain analysis and financial feasibility (including economic impact). AEC developed detailed reports for the following commodities: Mandarins Macadamias Mangoes Rotational Cropping (mungbeans, soybeans and chickpeas) Corn Wheat These reports represent a comprehensive outlook for each of the industries and their viability in the Rookwood catchment. Since publication, the reports have been used as reference material for other Government agencies.

Client: Stadiums Queensland State: QLD Since 2020, AEC has been partnering with Stadiums Queensland (SQ) to conduct an economic impact assessment (EIA) for the nine venues operated by the organisation on an annual basis (2020 to 2023). AEC is currently undertaking the 2023 EIA which will be based on expenditure data captured via intercept surveys with patron. Participating stadiums include: The Cbus Stadium The Suncorp Stadium The Gabba The Queensland Country Bank Stadium The assessment used Input-Output (IO) modelling to assess the economic contribution delivered by the venues to the Queensland economy. To understand the magnitude of the contribution to the economy, the EIA was based on an aggregate of SQ activity, encompassing: Capital works and upgrades Operations Hosting event activity, and Patron spend activity. The EIA reported on the number of full time equivalent (FTE) jobs supported, as well as the wages and salaries paid (directly and through Type I and Type II flow-on activity) in Queensland as a result of SQ’s activities. AEC also reported on the output generated / supported for Queensland businesses and estimated Gross State Product (GSP) for the year (including direct and flow-on activity). Source: Shutterstock

Client: Edward River Council State: NSW The objective of the Financial Sustainability Review was to facilitate sustainable long-term planning and avert potential issues emerging in the future. The project's highlight was its ability to provide the council with a thorough understanding of past performance and a forecast of the Council’s capacity to maintain fiscal capital (access to cash) and maintain infrastructure (assets). The project included an assessment of the asset management maturity and testing the estimated infrastructure backlog and asset maintenance targets. AEC developed strategies and recommendations to the Council to address areas that required improvement to ensure financial sustainability in the long term. The project involved a thorough analysis of the Council's cost of services, capital works planning, asset management approach, risks, and opportunities. This analysis offered a clear and comprehensive picture of the Council's financial position, and identified areas where improvements could be made. The project considered Council's long-term strategic plans and how they align with their financial projections, ensuring integration of financial planning with strategic planning, enabling Council to achieve the Community Strategic Plan and other adopted strategies and plans. The success of the project was highlighted by the appreciation and compliments provided by the Councillors and the Executive Team, and we look forward to monitoring the realisation of the project through implementation of our recommendations. Source: Shutterstock

Client: Brisbane Powerhouse State: QLD To build on the existing brand presence and attendance at the MELT: Festival of Queer Arts and Culture and attract an audience from interstate and internationally, Brisbane Powerhouse has proposed to expand the festival from the confines of the Brisbane Powerhouse. The new festival, referred to as MELT Open, will be delivered across inner Brisbane (including in New Farm, Fortitude Valley, Newstead, Brisbane CBD, and West End). In support of MELT Open, Brisbane Powerhouse is seeking funds from Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) and Brisbane Economic Development Agency. In developing the funding applications, Brisbane Powerhouse engaged AEC to conduct an economic impact assessment to demonstrate that MELT Open will contribute to the Queensland economy, attract visitors to Queensland, and enhance the profile of Queensland. The economic impact assessment demonstrated that in the first year of operations MELT Open would support net additional $53.5 million in industry output, $27.0 million in gross regional product, roughly 238 FTE jobs supporting $17.8 million in wages and salaries paid within the Brisbane LGA economy (including direct and flow on activity).

Client: Shoalhaven City Council State: NSW AEC was engaged by Shoalhaven City Council to prepare the Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) for the 2022-26 Resourcing Strategy. The project required AEC to complete a review of the current and future planning context and asses the alignment of current financial performance with the key plans and strategies. AEC developed the LTFP modelling and provided advice to Council on the sustainability of the proposed capital works program and service expenditure based on the current revenue strategies. Financial modelling included projected income and expenditure, balance sheet and cash flow statements for the budgeted scenario, as well as two alternative scenarios. Included in the LTFP are strategies that AEC recommended Council implements to achieve the desired long term financial sustainability and methods for monitoring the performance of the LTFP. To complete the engagement, AEC facilitated a workshop with the Councillors and Executive to present the draft LTFP and to discuss any matters of interest to the Council prior to adoption of the LTFP. The LTFP drafted by AEC is now published and available in the Resourcing Strategy on Council’s website: https://doc.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/Displaydoc.aspx?Record=D22/273281

Client: Queensland Futures institute State: QLD AEC was engaged by the Queensland Futures Institute (QFI) to undertake a comprehensive study and deliver recommendations for consideration by Government and Councils regarding the purpose, requirements, and how benefits are realised from regional economic hubs. The study involved: Development of a visual report card benchmarking the state and scope of current challenge areas for all Queensland Councils Identification of key success factors, gaps, activities, and policy settings required to support regional economic hub establishment and growth in Queensland Comparison of roles that are played by all levels of government and other stakeholder to achieve regional economic growth against best practice learnings from other jurisdictions Providing practical and relevant recommendations that can be facilitated by QFI and stakeholders to crystallise the benefits from a regional economic hub strategy Informing the policy development program of QFI in relation to regional economic hub strategy and key messaging Engaging with stakeholders to build acceptance and participation in the longer-term program. Part of the study also involved identifying further work required to build a defensible policy platform, to support initiatives in this arena. It was identified that there are opportunities to develop a distributed network approach to modelling current gaps in the economic development space; a model which has not yet been developed for Australia. This was recognised as an essential component of the process to identify opportunities for regional economic development. The model will reveal where resources should be directed - into areas which support and improve connectivity and reliance between sectors. As such, Stage 2 of the project will involve a ‘systems mapping project’ for regional economic hubs to identify critical areas for economic and social policy focus. This stage will also involve identification of short-term policy opportunities off the back of the model findings, as well as identification of measurement targets for success.

With a focus on key population data, this initial release includes information based around place of enumeration (where you were on Census night) and place of usual residence (where you normally live). Access the data topics of the 2021 Census uploaded to DataAU that includes: Census Population by Age and Sex Indigenous Population by Age and Sex ATSI Highest Year of Schooling PoUR (Place of usual residence) Type of Education Institution Attending Country of Birth Family Composition Dwelling Structure Household Composition Personal Income Household Income These are now accessible by logging in to your account at www.dataau.com.au/login. With a phased release of the 2021 Census, DataAU will continue to make updates available to users as they are released, with Tranche 2 being released by the ABS in October, 2022. Stay tuned for additional data as we work hard to ensure quality data and insight is at your fingertips. https://lnkd.in/dS7DnnKi

Client: WSP State: NSW AEC were engaged by WSP to provide land acquisition cost estimates for benchmarking and assurance purposes as part of a review of Council infrastructure project funding applications submissions under the Accelerated Infrastructure Fund (AIF). AEC reviewed seven projects each requiring land valuation estimates and acquisition cost estimates prepared. The land acquisition cost benchmarking exercise aimed to capture the cost of acquiring the freehold interest in the land (i.e., market value assessment), and where applicable, added land acquisition cost allowances which were then compared and benchmarked against the land acquisition cost estimates proposed by the local council for the shortlisted infrastructure projects as part of the review process. Project values ranged from $10mil to $50mil. Source: Department of Planning and Environment

Client: Australian Industry Trade College (AITC) State: NSW AITC is a co-educational trade school where Year 10, 11 and 12 students can complete their senior secondary education whilst also commencing a school-based apprenticeship within a trade-based industry. AEC were engaged by AITC to conduct two concurrent Expression of Interest (EOI) campaigns to assist them in potentially sourcing new sites for their existing Toowoomba and Redland campus operations. AITC had very specific criteria that was required to be met to occupy new premises. The purpose to engage AEC was to have an independent consultant undertake the campaign and reach the broadest possible audience. In addition to conducting the EOI campaign, documenting and screening all responses, AEC also prepared an evaluation framework whereby the three most suitable properties for each region were shortlisted (based on predefined criteria) to expediate the process for AITC. Source: realcommercial.com.au